Cement sale increases 11% in March and 2% in quarter
Valor Econômico 04/08/2009
The cement industry has been standing up to the economic crisis. At least in this first quarter, specially in March, when it closed the month with a 2.1% increase in sales, according to the preliminary data announced yesterday by the National Union of the Cement Industry (SNIC). Shipments reached 11.72 million tons, compared to 11.48 million in last year's same period, when the economy of the country was going through a great expansion. Comparing the sales in March in the domestic market with the volume of the same month of 2008, there was an increase of 11.5%, to 4.22 million tons. The daily sale, on its turn, increased 4.5%, compared to the performance of a year ago, with 176 thousand tons per business day. According to this criterion, February, regardless of the holidays and inside the seasonality, was better, with 178.5 thousand tons a day.
"The great stimulator of consumption of cement continues being the housing projects developed by the building companies", said José Otávio de Carvalho, executive secretary of the SNIC. For him, "looking at the quarter as a whole" gives a clearer view of the demand, by considering the numbers of worked days (bigger in March) and the seasonal effects, like rains, which have great influence on the consumption of cement. Another relevant indicator pointed by the executive is the variable average of 12 months. In the period from April 2008 to March this year, the consumption broke the historical record in the country, with 51.3 million tons. This volume is 11.3% above the volume reached in the same previous period - April of 2007 to March of last year. The sector still works with the expectation of repeating the consumption of 2008, of 51.4 million tons, this year, consolidating the country as the fifth greatest consumer in the world. The higher bet lies on the Government decisions of taking ahead the works of the GAP (infrastructure) and on the housing package, for 1 million houses intended for the low income segment of the population, which should be accompanied by several works (roads, sanitation and sewerage).